How we met: ‘He rolled up his sleeves, I saw his forearms – and something in my mind went click’

Clare and Flynn with son Rory. ‘It took me a while to realise how much I liked her,’ Flynn says.
Photograph: Supplied image

Growing up in the south-west London suburb of Twickenham, Clare hung out with her friends whenever she could. In May 2001, they were doing their usual “teenage roaming” when they met a group of boys on Richmond Bridge. “We ended up talking to them before sharing some illicit beers,” she says.

She was introduced to Flynn, and the two instantly clicked. “I thought she was a bit sarcastic and intimidating, but I really liked her,” he says. Clare wrote in her diary that he was “really fit – but I also said all his friends were fit, too,” she laughs.